Taking a break is not something I know how to do. As a teenager, I was lucky enough to spend every summer learning how to be an engineer at a small environmental science firm in Portland. One college winter, despite the town’s being covered in two feet of snow and absent anyone I knew, I decided staying in Poughkeepsie for a job would be the best use of my January break. When David, John, and Marco invited me to join Tumblr, I wanted to take my seat at our ten-person lunch table so badly, I couldn’t bear to wait more than a week.
More than anything, this is a New Yorker’s disease. I wasn’t raised here, but drive sure is what has kept me in this little leper colony. At this exact moment, New York is undoubtedly the best place in the world for ambitious technologists and hackers of all stripes. But thanks to that gooey richness it is also the worst place for a distractible person like myself to pause and think expansively. Like most New Yorkers, I need to get the hell out of this city from time to time to get any good from it. When I decided to leave Tumblr, I knew my first task was to buy a nonrefundable ticket far, far out of town.
My next three months are going to be a light jog around the world. The route is circuitous and nicely inefficient, with breaks between disorienting new places for old friends in favorite cities. (I put it together after days glued to a tool one of the airline alliances provides to plot out round-the-world airfares. Don’t click that unless you are willing to take the risk of leaving your job tomorrow to hop on the itinerary you’ll inevitably spend several hours putting together.)
I’ll be writing more about where I’m going and why over the next couple weeks as I get my visas, shots, AirBnBs and other logistics lined up. In the meantime, if it looks like our paths are going to cross, you really ought to drop me a line.
Lunch at home: didn’t know what I was missing.
![A memorial GIF[t] for my last day at Tumblr. I will definitely miss you guys.
(Special thanks to lulinternet and topherchris for the animated farewell. Judging by this, I may want to use my newfound free time to consult an orthodontist.)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3vmwgLr8B1qzfduso1_500.gif)
A memorial GIF[t] for my last day at Tumblr. I will definitely miss you guys.
(Special thanks to lulinternet and topherchris for the animated farewell. Judging by this, I may want to use my newfound free time to consult an orthodontist.)
Michael Marcelle at Yale Open Studios
We’re excited to announce the official launch of Storyboard, our new hub for in-depth conversations with Tumblr’s creative community. We’ll be posting regular features on creators working in and around Tumblr’s massively diverse cosmos — writers, musicians, animators, scientists, artists, archivists, chefs, comedians, or anyone else with a great story to tell. Today we’re talking about Michael Stipe, the New York Times, Afghanistan, and the design mechanics of the Tumblr Dashboard.
We want to hear your stories too. If you’re interested in submitting a story (or even a story idea) for us to publish, just post it on Tumblr tagged with #storyboard. Our editors will monitor the tag and the community’s interactions there, promoting stories that resonate. And if your story really works, we’ll ask to expand it for publication on Storyboard itself.
Last but not least, if you find yourself in New York City on May 10, we’d love to hang out at the official Tumblr meetup celebrating Storyboard’s launch. It’s at Powerhouse Arena, 7-9pm, with drinks on us and several Tumblr celebrity mystery guests (cough Topherchris, Tommypom, cough).
(via amandalynferri)
The porthole of a business hotel in Shinjuku
“Some snakes. The coastline is beautiful, but rough; bathing in the wrong place might be dangerous.” — Wikitravel article on Yakushima thinks you worry too much
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